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I find the whole premise of that show repugnant. The fat cat dresses like one of his grubby minimum-wage workers, spends a week in the trenches, actually WORKING every day. Inevitably, he can't cut it. It's hard. The days are long. You have to... what's the right word? WORK! He sees these guys and gals mucking along with their lives, barely making ends meet, working impossible hours and unable to even care for their own kids. But somehow he's always able to come out looking like a prince.

The worst is the last five minutes: The CEO gets all cleaned up, and the people he's been "working" with all week come to his office. They all cry, and hug, and make nice. The CEO gives them raises, and new responsibilities, and temporary child care, and help with re-building their flooded homes. Swell, boss. Five people, out of the thousands you keep in poverty, get help?

I can't stomach what passes for corporate "human resource" management. With a very few exceptions (I can think of six or seven), greed is the driving force behind each and every corporate decision. Guess what the head of the financial firm Blackstone Group grossed in 2008. Go ahead. $702,440,573.00. ONE guy. How on earth does that make ANY kind of sense?

Comment

I find the whole premise of that show repugnant. The fat cat dresses like one of his grubby minimum-wage workers, spends a week in the trenches, actually WORKING every day. Inevitably, he can't cut it. It's hard. The days are long. You have to... what's the right word? WORK! He sees these guys and gals mucking along with their lives, barely making ends meet, working impossible hours and unable to even care for their own kids. But somehow he's always able to come out looking like a prince.

The worst is the last five minutes: The CEO gets all cleaned up, and the people he's been "working" with all week come to his office. They all cry, and hug, and make nice. The CEO gives them raises, and new responsibilities, and temporary child care, and help with re-building their flooded homes. Swell, boss. Five people, out of the thousands you keep in poverty, get help?

I can't stomach what passes for corporate "human resource" management. With a very few exceptions (I can think of six or seven), greed is the driving force behind each and every corporate decision. Guess what the head of the financial firm Blackstone Group grossed in 2008. Go ahead. $702,440,573.00. ONE guy. How on earth does that make ANY kind of sense?

Is your glass half full? The exorbitant salaries you describe are never justifiable. Even if they claim to do magical things for shareholders. B.S.

Two things for me: The positive side is that some are recognized and helped in ways they may never have been otherwise.

But the cynical side of me thinks that some of these businesses know that the end story will be positive PR making revenues many times higher than any reward given to the few.

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Two things for me: The positive side is that some are recognized and helped in ways they may never have been otherwise.

I think it entirely depends on the guy running the place and doing it. The COO of Waste Management seemed to take it more seriously than the others. He realized that some of his productivity enhancements were making it tougher than he wanted on the drivers (but also knew the benefits to the bottom line), and when he saw something wrong wanted to institute a program to fix it for more than just that one employee.

The CEO of 711 didn't do anything to help anyone but those 5 people. The Hooter's guy also didn't do himself or the company favors, and I gave up on the show after that though I still do have a few recorded.

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I can't stomach what passes for corporate "human resource" management. With a very few exceptions (I can think of six or seven), greed is the driving force behind each and every corporate decision. Guess what the head of the financial firm Blackstone Group grossed in 2008. Go ahead. $702,440,573.00. ONE guy. How on earth does that make ANY kind of sense?

$702 million is not really salary, which was only $175,000. This guy was one of two founders of the company, and this was the year it went public. The entire company is worth about $16 billion dollars. His current year's total compensation was $350,000.

I don't know if he is a bad guy or a good guy, but he also gave the NY public library $100,000,000. Nobody made him do that, he could easily have kept his $100,000,000.

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I know a tax attorney; he tells his richest clients, "Do you want to give this hundred million to Uncle Sam as tax, or would you like to have a building named after you?" While that hundred million will help the public library, it is just another way to keep it out of the tax coffers, and makes the guy look generous in the bargain. My point wasn't that the one executive didn't accomplish anything for his company; whatever you want to call compensation, these guys are increasing their net worth by decreasing the pay of those under them. Simple as that. I don't begrudge someone who actually MAKES something; the rest of these crooks have simply devised a better way to hoover up more bucks.

Watch the show as you would watch an infomercial for that company.

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I don't believe those ceo's don't know what is going on. I have been watching it since it started and have yet to see anyone bitching and complaining about their jobs. Get an under cover camera and microphone in there and see what happens. Everyone is on their best behavior because of the cameras. I am sure all those employees were told not to say anything negative about the company in front of the cams. Something I think is unfair is they give all the ones that appear on t v bonuses and raises, hell one guy last night they offered to pay for his schooling and still pay him 40 hrs a week till he graduates and yet another one they gave him 10,000 dollars to help rebuild his house after he got flooded out. Are they going to do that for all their employees going through tough times. I doubt it. Talk about fake t v.

Two men Have died for you. One is Jesus Christ the other is the american soldier. One died for your soul The other for your freedom.

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I know a tax attorney; he tells his richest clients, "Do you want to give this hundred million to Uncle Sam as tax, or would you like to have a building named after you?" While that hundred million will help the public library, it is just another way to keep it out of the tax coffers, and makes the guy look generous in the bargain. My point wasn't that the one executive didn't accomplish anything for his company; whatever you want to call compensation, these guys are increasing their net worth by decreasing the pay of those under them.

The top marginal tax rate is going to be in the neighborhood of 50%, if he didn't give away his $100,000,000; he'd still have $50,000,000.

When it is really his company, i.e. he founded it I have no problem with whatever he wants to pay himself before and as it goes public. If he didn't have the idea, drive, and luck to create and built it, then it wouldn't exist. For the CEO of things like Exxon, where there is already a well established business that the guy doesn't own, I do agree compensation is often excessive; but I don't think it is on the backs of the employees, but rather the owners (i.e. shareholders).